The facts are that, in a country once referred to as Europe’s bread basket, people suddenly starved to death in masses due to lack of food, caused by a deliberate policy to punish the Ukrainian peasantry, which had continued to resist the Soviet policy of collectivization. On 23 October 2008, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that recognised the Holodomor as a crime against humanity, caused by the deliberate policies of Stalin’s USSR. And on 28 April 2010, a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declared the famine was caused by the “cruel and deliberate actions and policies of the Soviet regime” and was responsible for the deaths of “millions of innocent people” in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia.

New myths, old topic

During the past week, pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets marked the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the protests at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv, Ukraine. For at least four years, Ukraine has been a permanent front-line and testing ground for the multi-language pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign, in order to justify Russia’s military intervention and illegal annexation of Crimea.

This week’s disinformation gold mine was an Italian documentary that claimed it was Georgian snipers who opened fire on protesters in February 2014. For a detailed debunk of the flaws, manipulations and inaccuracies the documentary is built on, read the analyses by Myth Detector, StopFake and the Insider.

The story was covered by the main Russian TV channels and news outlets and on news portals in English and in Georgian. Let’s look at how the disinformation was tailored to these different audiences.

For English language readers, the credibility of an established European media outlet was of importance. The website spreading the story starts with explaining that the “TV documentary emanates from the mainstream media” from the “most watched TV channel in Italy”. In direct contradiction to this argument, though, the next statement says that “the Western corporate media remains silent” about the issue, but “independent ” ones ensure its distribution.

For the Russian audience, disinforming reports about Georgian snipers were easier to serve. The “news” about the documentary was accompanied by the usual allegations of Ukraine being governed by Nazis and denials of Russian military presence in Ukraine. Furthermore, former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has been a top target for conspiracies and disinformation this autumn, so implicating him fitted the general disinformation picture.

In Georgian, the disinformation mainly followed the reporting in the Russian language, Myth Detector notes. One outlet directly accused Saakashvili of the shooting. Another made the message even simpler. It quoted the Italian journalist’s Facebook post that claimed; “snipers admitted: EU-backed opposition leaders, rather than supporters of President Yanukovych, opened fire on protesters”. As usual, no evidence for the claims was provided.

Georgian sniper trio killed demonstrators on Euromaidan, operation was initiated by the former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili

Additional details: Georgian sniper trio killed demonstrators on Euromaidan. The operation was initiated by the former president of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, Italian documentary shows.

Gian Micalessin, military correspondent of Italian newspaper Il Giornale, is the author of the documentary. He talks with three Georgian respondents – Koba Nergadze, Zalogi Kvaratskhelia and Alexander Revazishvili, who claim that in February 2014, Mikheil Saakashvili’s military aide, Mamuka Mamulashvili paid them USD 1000 each and brought them to Kiev with fake documents for participation in the Maidan developments. The respondents also claim that upon Mamulashvili’s instructions, they opened fire on peaceful protesters.

According to analytical portal The Insider Russia, the documentary is fake because the stories told by “snipers” contain inaccuracies and manipulations. Koba Nergadze, one of the respondents, says in the film that he was a security officer under Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. To prove this, the documentary shows a document in Georgian and English languages containing grammatical errors. The document includes an English wording "Security Service of Defend" that is an incorrect grammatical construction in English. Moreover, the document has a name – Certifikate instead of Certificate.

Myth Detector contacted Mamuka Mamulashvili, leader of the Georgian Legion, who currently resides in Ukraine. He denied all accusations against him, saying that he had not crossed the Ukrainian border before April 2014, whereas the Maidan developments took place in February 2014. Mamulashvili noted that the date of his crossing the Ukrainian border could be verified at the relevant agencies of both Georgia and Ukraine.

Europe will annex the Eastern Partnership countries and disintegration of Russia will begin

Additional details: For Western Europe, the territory to the East is an annex of resources. The Europeans will not tolerate any sovereign state or territorial entity that does not feel itself an attachment to their interests. They declare a zone of their interests - this is a normal strategy - those countries, through which the oil and gas pipelines, that are feeding and supplying Europe, pass today. Now they will annex these countries under false humanitarian values and slogans.Then the disintegration of Russia will begin.

No evidence given. The EU hasn’t ever had any plan of dismantling Russia or seizing the natural resources or territory of the former USSR. The Treaty on the European Union states that any European country may apply for membership if it respects the democratic values of the EU and is committed to promoting them.

The Eastern Partnership initiative is not an EU accession process. Each country is free to choose the level of ambition and the goals to which it aspires in its relations with the European Union. Further debunking here. Worth mentioning is that the only country seizing territories illegally from an Eastern Partnership country; Ukraine, is Russia https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/22959/The%20EU%20non-recognition%20policy%20for%20Crimea%20and%20Sevastopol:%20Fact%20Sheet.

The Czech Security Information Service is trying to prohibit collecting public information e.g about migrants

Additional details: The Security and Information Service of the Czech Republic wants to insert a paragraph in the forthcoming amendment to the Criminal Law, which prohibits the collection and scrutiny of public and non-binding information in the Czech Republic. The consequence of this law would be the elimination of alternative journalism in the Czech Republic in its entirety, because any critical article will be marked as criminal under this amendment to the law.

The Czech government wants to create a Euro-army instead of being part of NATO

Additional details: The Czech government has signed the PESCO agreement, which (although it does not say openly) means creating an Euro-Army. The aim is to push NATO out, because in the Alliance everything must be decided by absolute consensus, but in the EU, Brussels decides. Once the Czech army will be subjected to the EU, there will be no national control but all orders will come from Brussels.

The main aim of a Permanent Structured Cooperation on security and defence (PESCO) is to increase Member States' effectiveness in addressing security challenges and advancing towards further integrating and strengthening defence cooperation within the EU framework. Member States' participation in PESCO is based on a voluntary principle. The EU Council will be responsible for the overall policy, and the decisions will be taken by the member states unanimously. https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/34226/permanent-structured-cooperation-pesco-factsheet_en

According to NATO, Serbia does not aspire to join the Alliance. However, the country is deepening its political dialogue and cooperation with NATO on issues of common interest. https://www.nato.int/cps/ua/natohq/topics_50100.htm. Serbia joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme in 2006 and practical cooperation has been increasing steadily since then. NATO has supported Serbia in the reform of its national security forces and institutions. Serbian officers have received NATO training, preparing them to participate in peacekeeping operations. NATO has also helped Serbia dispose of over 2,000 tons of dangerous surplus munitions. Cooperation between NATO and Serbia also extends from scientific research through disaster response preparedness to participation in military exercises.​https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_147811.htm. NATO is an Alliance that consists of 29 independent member countries, every country decides for themselves if they want to joint that allience or not https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html.

Recurring disinformation. The Ukrainian Constitution reads "The issues of change of territory of Ukraine can only be decided by an all-Ukrainian referendum" (Article 73); "The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an indivisible part of Ukraine and decides on its policies within the limits determined by the Constitution of Ukraine." (Article 134). http://bit.ly/2eNoUP4
Any decision relating to Ukraine's sovereignty or sovereign choices can only be taken without undue external pressure. This so-called referendum was organised in a matter of weeks by a self-proclaimed Crimean leadership lacking democratic legitimacy and installed by armed Russian military personnel following the seizure of public buildings. The EU does not recognise it https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage_en/22959/The%20EU%20non-recognition%20policy%20for%20Crimea%20and%20Sevastopol:%20Fact%20Sheet, nor does the United Nations General Assembly http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47443#.Wh7LwGfnCEA.

No evidence given. Unlike the Soviet Russia, which in 1939 concluded with Nazi Germany the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, according to which Stalin and Hitler divided spheres of influence in Europe and attacked Poland, thereby starting WWII, the US did not enter into similar agreements with the Nazis.

No evidence given. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government https://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/otp/161114-otp-rep-PE_ENG.pdf.

It is a lie that Holodomor in Ukraine was provoked against some ethnic groups

Additional details: If somebody starts telling you that the Holodomor, the famine in the Union [the USSR], was provoked purposefully, against some ethnic groups there, against the Ukrainians, it is a lie, and it is a despicable lie.

According to Britannica, the Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932–33 was a result of Stalin's policies and a man-made demographic catastrophe unprecedented in peacetime. Of the estimated six to eight million people who died in the Soviet Union, about four to five million were Ukrainians. The famine was a direct assault on the Ukrainian peasantry, which had stubbornly continued to resist collectivization; indirectly, it was an attack on the Ukrainian village, which traditionally had been a key element of Ukrainian national culture. Its deliberate nature is underscored by the fact that no physical basis for famine existed in Ukraine.

On 23 October 2008, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that recognised the Holodomor as a crime against humanity, caused by the deliberate policies of Stalin's USSR http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-0523+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN. On 28 April 2010, a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolution declared the famine was caused by the "cruel and deliberate actions and policies of the Soviet regime" and was responsible for the deaths of "millions of innocent people" in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=17845&lang=en.

The process of decommunization in Ukraine was legalized by the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] in April 2015. It has nothing to do with the internal affairs of Russia. Now, decommunization is a state policy of Ukraine eliminating the ideological heritage of the Soviet period. This policy presupposes the banning of the Communist Party and its symbols, the demolition of monuments dedicated to Soviet state and party figures, the change of toponyms and other names in Ukraine, and not in Russia.

The demonstrations which began in Kyiv in November 2013 – called "Maidan", or "Euromaidan" – were not provoked from outside but were a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last minute U-turn when, after seven years of negotiation, he refused to sign the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and halted progress towards Ukraine's closer relationship with the EU as a result of Russian pressure. The protesters' demands included constitutional reform, a stronger role for parliament, formation of a government of national unity, an end to corruption, early presidential elections and an end to violence http://bit.ly/2ftv6iT.

Far from destabilising Ukraine or using it as a tool of aggression, the EU and its Member States have been deeply engaged in seeking a solution to the crisis brought about by Russia's subsequent military intervention in the East of the country. France and Germany are, together with Ukraine and Russia, the four members of the Normandy contact group tasked with resolving the situation in the East of Ukraine. EU High Representative Federica Mogherini has reaffirmed many times that the implementation by all sides of the Minsk agreements, signed to bring to an end the conflict in the East, is an absolute priority.

The EU is also supporting, not destabilising Ukraine, through one of the most ambitious reform programmes it has ever undertaken. The provisional application of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area offers Ukraine privileged access to a market of over 500 million consumers. The EU has provided long term loans to Ukraine to help stabilise its economy, as well as substantial budget support, technical assistance and loans to SME businesses. The EU is both currently and historically the biggest international donor to Ukraine, and has proposed an overall support package of at least €11bn to help stabilise the economic and financial situation.

There are no plans to change the Swedish flag. In fact, Swedish fact checker initiative Viralgranskaren have found that the false campaign originates from the webforum 4chan, known for its trolling and spreading of disinformation. There is no indication that the campaign would be serious. Rather, the campaign seems to be staged for the purpose of provoking trolls on the 4chan web forum. This has been done, among other things, by tweets under the newly created hash tag #ForBetterSweden, fake propaganda images and altered screenshots from newspapers such as Slate and Buzzfeed. The similar site 8chan has a thread about the project. https://www.metro.se/artikel/4chan-anv%C3%A4ndare-bakom-falsk-namninsamling-f%C3%B6r-att-%C3%A4ndra-sveriges-flagga

Italian documentary shows new information about the Euromaidan snipers: they were sent to Kyiv by former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili

Additional details: Italian documentary shows new information about snipers who fired on demonstrators in central Kyiv during the protests. The film shows interviews with several people with Georgian names who say that they fired on protesters and police and had been sent to Kyiv by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's military aide. The documentary also suggests that the snipers were led by a US soldier.

Gian Micalessin, military correspondent of Italian newspaper Il Giornale, is the author of the documentary. He talks with three Georgian respondents – Koba Nergadze, Zalogi Kvaratskhelia and Alexander Revazishvili, who claim that in February 2014, Mikheil Saakashvili’s military aide, Mamuka Mamulashvili paid them USD 1000 each and brought them to Kiev with fake documents for participation in the Maidan developments. The respondents also claim that upon Mamulashvili’s instructions, they opened fire on peaceful protesters.

According to analytical portal The Insider Russia, the documentary is fake because the stories told by “snipers” contain inaccuracies and manipulations. Koba Nergadze, one of the respondents, says in the film that he was a security officer under Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. To prove this, the documentary shows a document in Georgian and English languages containing grammatical errors. The document includes an English wording "Security Service of Defend" that is an incorrect grammatical construction in English. Moreover, the document has a name – Certifikate instead of Certificate.

Myth Detector contacted Mamuka Mamulashvili, leader of the Georgian Legion, who currently resides in Ukraine. He denied all accusations against him, saying that he had not crossed the Ukrainian border before April 2014, whereas the Maidan developments took place in February 2014. Mamulashvili noted that the date of his crossing the Ukrainian border could be verified at the relevant agencies of both Georgia and Ukraine.

Soros and UNICEF prohibiting boys to be boys and girls to be girls in Georgia

Additional details: Georgian government passed a decree No 488 on pre –school state standards, according to which children should not be divided as boys and girls. These standards are created by the Georgian Education Ministry and UNICEF and prepared with the support of international organisations World Vision's Georgia representation, Open – Society Georgia and the US Embassy.

Language / Targeted audience: Georgian

Link to the disinformation: Printed newspaper Georgia and the World

Disinforming outlet(s): Georgia and the World

Reported by: EEAS Tbilisi

Disproof note:

No evidence given. UNICEF cannot decide over Georgia's school programme. Read more about what UNICEF workes with in Georgia: https://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Georgia_2016_COAR.pdf. Soros is often blamed for anything in pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets https://euvsdisinfo.eu/the-all-powerful-mr-soros-2/.

Pesco is a set-up enabling the US to supervise yet another major infrastructure project in Europe

Additional details: Pesco (Permanent Structured Cooperation on security and defence) does not indicate Europe's independence. It is a set-up enabling the US to supervise yet another major infrastructure project in Europe.

The US is not an EU member state. PESCO is a Treaty-based framework and process to deepen defence cooperation amongst EU Member States who are capable and willing to do so. The aim is to jointly develop defence capabilities and make them available for EU military operations. Enhanced defence capabilities of EU Member States will also benefit NATO. They will strengthen the European pillar within the Alliance and respond to repeated demands for stronger transatlantic burden sharing.

Additional details: Alienation between Georgians and Abkhaz is linked to the ethnic Turk, Konstantin Ozgan, who acted on the instructions of Turkey and Muslim North Caucasians.

Language / Targeted audience: Georgian

Link to the disinformation: Asaval-Dasavali printed outlet

Disinforming outlet(s): Asaval-Dasavali

Reported by: Myth Detector

Disproof note:

No fact confirms any political links between the Turkish state and Konstantin Ozgan, who was actively involved in the political unrest in Abkhazia and held senior positions in Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and later in occupied Abkhazia. Ozgan was a Soviet Army major and has been awarded an Honorary Order. Further debunking at Myth Detector http://mythdetector.ge/en/myth/falsification-history-confrontation-between-georgians-and-abkhaz-was-led-ethnic-turk.

No evidence given. Ambassador Richard Mills has really talked about 8 billion USD investments in Armenia. However, the ambassador has not mentioned any precondition related to closing the NPP. “American companies are interested in investments in the renewable energy sector in Armenia, and there is a possibility of about 8 billion USD investment cooperation”, the ambassador said. Moreover, while Russia has provided a 30 million USD grant to the Metsamor NPP, the grant provided by the US to the nuclear power plant makes up 65 million USD, and that of the EU – 55 million. Further debunking at SUT.am https://sut.am/en/archives/2096, http://uicarmenia.org/en/3516

During 1932-1933, there was no intentional policy of destroying Ukrainian people

Additional details: In 1932-1933, mortality rate did increase rapidly in the USSR, especially during the summer 1933. But people did not starve in the summer, it was an epidemic. Yes, maybe this epidemic was also caused by serious hunger, but there was no intentional policy of destroying Ukrainian people.

According to Britannica, the Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932–33 was a result of Stalin's policies and a man-made demographic catastrophe unprecedented in peacetime. Of the estimated six to eight million people who died in the Soviet Union, about four to five million were Ukrainians. The famine was a direct assault on the Ukrainian peasantry, which had stubbornly continued to resist collectivization; indirectly, it was an attack on the Ukrainian village, which traditionally had been a key element of Ukrainian national culture. Its deliberate nature is underscored by the fact that no physical basis for famine existed in Ukraine.

On 23 October 2008, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that recognised the Holodomor as a crime against humanity, caused by the deliberate policies of Stalin's USSR http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-0523+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN. On 28 April 2010, a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolution declared the famine was caused by the "cruel and deliberate actions and policies of the Soviet regime" and was responsible for the deaths of "millions of innocent people" in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Russia http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=17845&lang=en.

Italian documentary shows new information about the Euromaidan snipers: they were sent to Kyiv by former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili

Additional details: Italian documentary shows new information about snipers who fired on demonstrators in central Kiev during the protests. The film shows interviews with several people with Georgian names who say that they fired on protesters and police and had been sent to Kyiv by former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. The documentary also suggests that the snipers were led by a US soldier.

Gian Micalessin, military correspondent of Italian newspaper Il Giornale, is the author of the documentary. He talks with three Georgian respondents – Koba Nergadze, Zalogi Kvaratskhelia and Alexander Revazishvili, who claim that in February 2014, Mikheil Saakashvili’s military aide, Mamuka Mamulashvili paid them USD 1000 each and brought them to Kiev with fake documents for participation in the Maidan developments. The respondents also claim that upon Mamulashvili’s instructions, they opened fire on peaceful protesters.

According to analytical portal The Insider Russia, the documentary is fake because the stories told by “snipers” contain inaccuracies and manipulations. Koba Nergadze, one of the respondents, says in the film that he was a security officer under Mikheil Saakashvili’s presidency. To prove this, the documentary shows a document in Georgian and English languages containing grammatical errors. The document includes an English wording "Security Service of Defend" that is an incorrect grammatical construction in English. Moreover, the document has a name – Certifikate instead of Certificate.

Myth Detector contacted Mamuka Mamulashvili, leader of the Georgian Legion, who currently resides in Ukraine. He denied all accusations against him, saying that he had not crossed the Ukrainian border before April 2014, whereas the Maidan developments took place in February 2014. Mamulashvili noted that the date of his crossing the Ukrainian border could be verified at the relevant agencies of both Georgia and Ukraine.

Ukraine has never had any territorial pretensions concerning Transnistria. The background for this disinformation story was a Ukrainian parliamentarian questioning a proposal by Moldovan president Igor Dodon. While visiting Moscow recently, Dodon said that in case Moldova loses its statehood, Transnistria must be given the right to self-determination. He outlined two scenarios: Transnistria could become a part of Moldova or a part of Ukraine, as outright independence or becoming part of the Russian Federation are unrealistic prospects for the breakaway territory. Responding to Dodon’s interview, Ukrainian MP Iryna Friz posted a response on her Facebook page expressing incredulity at his proposition, particularly in light of the fact that Ukraine has always considered Transnistria an integral part of Moldova. Friz wonders if perhaps Dodon’s suggestion is a signal from the Kremlin on trading Transnistria for Crimea and advises him to spend more time defending the territorial integrity of Moldova and less time making dubious proposals. Further debunking at Stopfake.org https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-ukraine-wants-to-exchange-crimea-for-transdnistria/.

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia hindered a coup d'etat led by the West, and secured peace

Additional details: The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia made it impossible for the West to carry out a coup d'état in Czechoslovakia and preserved a life of peace and harmony for the people of all countries of the Warsaw Pact for more than twenty years.

History revisionism. https://euvsdisinfo.eu/czechoslovakia-should-be-grateful-to-the-ussr-for-1968/ Soviet troops and their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia to end the country's brief period of political liberalization, called the Prague Spring. About 500,000 troops were involved in the invasion and occupation, during which 108 Czechoslovaks died and some 500 were wounded. https://www.rferl.org/a/czechoslovakia-politics-prague-spring/25080764.html. Furthermore, the "normalisation" period that followed brought with it some of the hardest laws of the country's communist era.http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czech-history/president-gustav-husak-the-face-of-czechoslovakias-normalisation, https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/crees/sites/default/files/images/documents/outreach/from-the-prague-spring-to-normalization.pdf

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The Disinformation Review focuses on key messages carried in the international information space, which have been identified as providing a partial, distorted or false view or interpretation and spreading key pro-Kremlin messaging. It does not necessarily imply, however, that the outlet concerned is linked to the Kremlin or pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. The Review analyses messages, not the messenger. If the message is a) false, which is determined by the facts and b) originating and/or in line with identified pro-Kremlin disinformation messaging, it is included in the product. The Review is a compilation of cases from the East Stratcom Task Force’s wide network of contributors and is therefore not considered an official EU position. Likewise, the news articles are based on the analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force, so information and opinions expressed are not considered an official EU position. Have you found a mistake? Give us your feedback below or send us an e-mail.

Disclaimer

The Disinformation Review focuses on key messages carried in the international information space, which have been identified as providing a partial, distorted or false view or interpretation and spreading key pro-Kremlin messaging. It does not necessarily imply, however, that the outlet concerned is linked to the Kremlin or pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. The Review is a compilation of cases from the East Stratcom Task Force’s wide network of contributors and is therefore not considered an official EU position. Likewise, the news articles are based on the analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force, so information and opinions expressed are not considered an official EU position.